Sabotage

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon suspects that Saddam Hussein will sabotage his oil fields should the United States invade Iraq, potentially creating an economic and ecological disaster that could dwarf his destruction of Kuwaiti oil fields at the close of the Persian Gulf war, a senior defense official said yesterday. As a result, the Pentagon is working on plans to quickly seize and secure the two vast oil fields in southern and northern Iraq, the official said. Special Operations forces or rapidly deployable conventional troops, such as the 82nd Airborne Division, might be used.

AUSTIN, Texas - The George W. Bush presidential campaign, dissatisfied with the FBI investigation of the debate preparation tape that was shipped to the opposition, believes the feds suspect a Bush scheme to sabotage the upcoming presidential debates. Mark McKinnon, whose firm Maverick Media does Bush's TV ads, said yesterday that questions asked of his staff by FBI agents show "they had a theory that somebody mailed this as a way to blow up the debates, which is a ridiculous notion." Yvette Lozano, a Maverick Media employee questioned by the FBI, said the two agents who quizzed her for 90 minutes posited the sabotage theory based on the notion that a stolen tape might provide a convenient out for a candidate not eager to debate.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Boise Cascade Corp.'s regional headquarters burned to the ground the night before Christmas. When the smoke cleared, the only thing left was a communiquM-i from the "elves" of the Earth Liberation Front explaining that it had "left coal in Boise Cascade's stocking." "Boise Cascade has been very naughty after ravaging the forests of the Pacific Northwest ... [and] now looks toward the virgin forests of Chile," the message said. "Let this be a lesson to all greedy multinational corporations who don't respect ecosystems.

A 20-year-old Calvert County computer programmer was sentenced yesterday in federal court to 15 months in prison for sabotaging an Internal Revenue Service computer after learning that he was about to be fired from his contractor job. Claude R. Carpenter II of Sandy Wash Court in Lusby also was ordered to pay $108,000 in fines by U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow after he pleaded guilty in Greenbelt to causing damage to a federal computer....

I gave my company an eight-week notice. I had planned to use that time to look for another job. But after I gave notice, my manager informed me that he would let me know at the end of the week if the company still needed my services. If he lets me go right away, can I collect unemployment? He said I wouldn't be able to collect because I had resigned. He can huff all he wants. But if he dismisses you before your designated quit date, you may well be entitled to unemployment benefits to cover the weeks you expected to work.

MOSCOW -- By the convoluted standards of Soviet foreign trade, Boris I. Korobochkin's barter deal seemed simple enough.The Singapore company would get 50,000 tons of Soviet-manufactured mineral additives for livestock feed. In trade, it would supply the Soviet side with 1,200 personal computer systems, plus a number of photocopiers, telefax machines and other equipment in short supply.However, to Mr. Korobochkin, the would-be middleman, the deal brought not the intended profit but a score of KGB interrogations, nine volumes of evidence and a month in Moscow's infamous Lefortovo prison.

Screening of Hitchcock's `Sabotage' The Charles Theatre's six-month retrospective of the films of Alfred Hitchcock continues with 1936's Sabotage, starring Sylvia Sidney as a wife who little suspects that her husband (Oscar Homolka) is an anarchist with murderous intent. Catch an encore at 7 p.m. today and 9 p.m. Thursday. Tickets are $8. Information: 410-727-3456 or thecharles.com.

Terrorism is not God's will. Tornadoes are. Virtual terrorism: They panic America by inquiring into chemical-biological sabotage. We empty out Afghanistan by talking about bombing it. If we really mean the ultimatum to the Taliban, we need a communication channel so they can answer. The Wizard king Michael Jordan will levitate his team, in attendance figures if not in the standings.

Lionel "Rusty" Bernstein, 82, a white anti-apartheid activist who stood trial for sabotage with former South African President Nelson Mandela, died Sunday in Oxford, England, from what appeared to be a massive heart attack. Mr. Bernstein was one of 16 activists, including Mr. Mandela, charged in 1963 with sabotage and the attempted overthrow of the South African government. In the so-called Rivonia Trial, the defendants used the courtroom to put the apartheid state on trial. Mr. Bernstein was later acquitted after spending the year of the trial in prison.

The campaign has entered the nasty stage, leaving questions about what it was before.An 81-year-old bottle of wine sold for $350, and you thought baseball card collectors were frivolous.It's hard to know which would be scarier, that the El Al disaster in Amsterdam was sabotage, or that it wasn't.Angola tried a free election and it was just like one of ours: The loser said it was stolen.